Field Recording from 07.05.17.
(Magenta Bat4 and Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-50 

They dart around my head hunting insects. My understanding of time is no more apparent than when I’m listening for bats. The waiting for dusk followed by the fleeting moment as one flashes past so intensely heightens my awareness of the passage of time. A wash of static created by the ultrasonic detector helps me visualise the moments between the sounds.
 
Field Recording from 11.04.17.
(Hand-built Hydrophone and Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-49 

I attach a small piece of bacon to the hydrophone and place it into a large rock pool for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes I see the hydrophone caught in the claw of an adult shore crab and decide to leave it for a further 20 minutes. After 20 minutes the shore crab and the bacon have gone. I listen back to the varied results of the recording. Sounds of the distant shore, trickling seawater flowing over rocks and the movement of seaweed create an adequately large opening soundscape. Then the close-mic’d encounter, resulting in the highly intimate recording of a shore crab eating. This unexpected change in perspective creates an interesting focus on the minute details of the overall soundscape  

Extract from larger (45’00”) recording.

 
Field Recording from 11.04.17.
(Hand-built Hydrophone and Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-48 

‘I am going to set to work again tomorrow. I shall start by doing one or two still lifes to get used to painting again’.


National Gallery. (2015). Two Crabs. (Online)

Available at: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/vincent-van-gogh-two-crabs
 

Field Recording from 06.04.17.
(Hand-built Hydrophone and Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-44

Anaerobic bacteria and other organisms found in stagnant water are used in a process known as retting. The process in which bacteria dissolve or rot away the cellular muscle tissue and pectins surrounding bast-fiber bundles, the bundles are then later used for producing various traditional objects such as bast shoes.

I am captivated by the language of micro-environments, the minute details of sounds within a specific and normally forgettable space. Here, within the environment of the stagnant water, the tonality and sonic variations produced by the micro-organisms and microscopic insects create a fascinating and vastly layered soundscape.  

Field Recording from 03.04.17.
(Hand-built Hydrophone and Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-43 

In what appears to be a stationary pool of water there is the subtle background jostling of running water. A creature barks from the base of the pond.
 
Field Recording from 03.04.17.
(Hand-built Hydrophone and Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-41


Next to lock 19 there is a small patch water seemingly boiling over with air bubbles coming up from an unseen source. I place a hydrophone into the canal and listen to the timpani like sounds of the air bubbles against the repeating submersion of the mic as its thrown up out of the water by the power of the air only to sink back down again only a few seconds later. 
 

Field Recording test from 25.03.17.
(Magenta Bat4 and an Olympus DM-650)
https://sonicbiota.bandcamp.com/track/rec-38 

As the lampposts turn on the singular Pipistrelle I’ve been observing shoots off into the darkness and is not heard from again. I am aware that certain types of electrical lights are known to disturb the roosting and hunting habits of bats. I turn to the light holding my ultrasonic detector still set to 45kHz and hear a swarm of static.   
 






Field Recording test from 25.03.17.
(Magenta Bat4 and an Olympus DM-650)

The car park has no particular resonance. I have stood here before beneath the pine trees listening for bats and heard several. Today there is only one, a Common Pipistrelle travelling back and forth every five or six minutes.